


Shoulda Known

by Merfilly



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, POV First Person, Rare Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-04
Updated: 2012-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 21:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunstreaker and Optimus, through Ironhide's optics</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoulda Known

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Unpopular AU time -- I write Ironhide as Dion's reformat in this.

I've watched over him since he was a bit of a mech, slinging crates and filling loads for mechs with creds and no faces. We came up together, worked to the foreman positions with our safety records and attention for detail. It was the only kind of upward mobility we shoulda had, under the old system.

Let me tell ya, that never set well with him. He was a mech that believed everyone could be equal. Our little darlin' of a femme agreed with him, and I'd just nod my head, knowing they were both dreaming with no sense. We'd work 'til we rusted, and then we'd be replaced. Just the way it was, and nothin' could ever change it.

The one time I told him that truth to his face? That was the first time I saw the anger that had built inside him, the need for a change we could not have. His voice came up, telling me all it took was will and effort, and somehow, someway he'd figure it out. His hands were in fists when he walked away, and I felt a chill in my lines. A mech like him, fueled by an anger his own nature wouldn't let him express, was something dangerous. Swear to this day, it was just our femme that ever managed to keep him from boilin' right on over. She had a way of keeping him soothed, and we better all be thankful, or old Bucket Head might have gotten the best leader we've ever known on our own side for his own.

Then the reformat happened, and for the longest time, I thought those currents had been stilled because of his reforging into what the war needed.

I shoulda known better.

Maybe if I had been watchin' him closer, if I had thought to ask him some of the right questions, I woulda seen it, and been there to help him blow off the steam before it caused a meltdown. I'm still not sure Prowl knows how close he came to pushing Prime past a point that woulda made Prime feel enough shame to make Ultra Magnus take over from him. I hope so, because the Sunflower of Doom can only handle so much temper. If he ever can't handle Prime, I 'm really not sure our cause will survive it.

I gotta admit, never really saw it comin'. Sunstreaker is a pain in the aft in ways only rivaled by Tracks or Mirage on a bad cycle. And while Prime is real good at handlin' him and the others with walkin' egos bigger than either moon, I never thought that Prime would choose someone so tied up in the same mess that made Megatron.

Maybe, just maybe, that ought t' have been the clue, though.

Never gonna forget that moment I saw it in action, even if I learned later they'd been a pair for longer. Prowl had just harped on about the necessity of accepting casualties, and slotting mechs into positions based on class abilities. Logical from his side of things, but Prime had lost someone in the fight that he'd been grooming outside the mech's class ability, so it was just the wrong thing to say. I saw that temper rise, the one I'd thought gone for all time, and scrambled to find a way to deflect it. Our army needed Prime to be not only rational and cool-headed, but compassionate to his fullest ability, not raging and lashing out in pain.

Before Prime said a word, though, Sunstreaker jumped the tactical officer, blow landing center chest where it wouldn't do much harm to Prowl, other than shake him up. That made Prime react in a different way, while Sunflower mouthed off about being a hell of a lot more than his class, and Prowl ought to get a taste of being something lower than what he'd been framed as, then see if he wanted to be confined to class abilities. Prime pulled him off, held up a hand to cut off Prowl's demand for reparation, and declared the council meeting over.

I didn't see, in the chaos after, that Prime actually walked out with Sunstreaker in a strong-arm grip. I was too busy runnin' my own mouth about how Prowl deserved it for being such a Senate lackey some days. Once we did shuffle out, I got it in my head to go check on Prime, though.

Let me just say, I make it a point not to go check on Prime nowadays, if I know he's in a temper. Not only are my optics scarred for life, but I got it through my thick helm real quick that Sunflower has it all under control.

I'll just worry about what that means about Prime and Megs in some other vorn.


End file.
